How To
How to Mattress Stitch on Garter Stitch
It’s possible to have been doing a thing for so long, and know so many big and little things about it, that you forget something useful and incredibly basic.
Case in point: a baby blanket I knit last summer: the Pack & Play. I started with Lorilee Beltman’s Sinkmates Suite dishcloth pattern, and supersized it. I just kept going with the mad, irregular, and addicting stripes in Rowan Handknit Cotton, having the time of my life. I thought to myself, surely I’ll figure out a good way to join these four big dishcloths into a blanket—I’m smart! I can do things!
When it came time to join the pieces, I tossed and turned about which seaming method would be best. I went so far as to do one of the two short seams using one of my favorite blanket-joiners, the 3-needle bindoff method.
It was perfectly fine—which means that I wasn’t satisfied with it. But I couldn’t think of a better idea. I needed to ignore it for a while and wait for the right idea. (That’s a legitimate problem-solving strategy, in case you don’t know. It only looks like project abandonment.)
A full year later, and I had the same four super-sized dishcloths on my porch table as I’d had last year at this time. So I asked myself, what quality or qualities do I want in this seam? And realized that what I was really craving was a flat seam, to preserve the plain-weave vibe of garter stitch.
But the only flat seam I knew—or thought I knew—was a whipstitch seam, where you lay the pieces edge to edge and you know, whipstitch them.
But my whipstitches always look a bit chaotic. You see what I mean about tossing and turning? I can think a problem like this to death, and still not have a baby blanket to show for it.
Then I remembered: Ann and I wrote a book about basic knitting techniques, Skill Set: Beginning Knitting.
We also made videos demonstrating these techniques, one of which is: Mattress Stitch on Garter Stitch. Ding ding ding!
I can hear you saying, but mattress stitch is not a flat seam—it leaves a visible ridge on the wrong side.
That’s correct, of course. But I tried working it even closer to the edges—on the last stitch of each row—and guess what: it’s flat.
On the left: right side. On the right: wrong side.
For this blanket, I greatly prefer it to whipstitch, or regular mattress stitch.
A trip through the washing machine and dryer, and off to a baby she goes.
The moral of this story is: whether you’ve been knitting for six minutes or sixty years, Skill Set is here for you. Bookmark the Skill Set YouTube channel for free knitting help, and to remember things you knew but forgot.
We’re super proud of these short, clear videos, and they cover a lot.
P.S. Shout out to reader Heidi D from Australia who sent me a video from 10rowsaday demonstrating a slightly different and cool way to make a flat seam between two garter-stitch pieces. We have choices! Check it out.
Skill Set YouTube channel now subscribed. Thank you again for your expert guidance.
That’s a very cool baby blanket!
I love hearing your thought process. It must have been kind of funny to hear your own voice explaining how to do the thing you forgot about!
Truly weird!
I’ve been there with my own thought processes, too. Makes you wonder who’s running your brain!
Thank you!
Thanks ever so much for the reminder!
Kay, you are so right! I have been knitting for over 60 years and following MDK almost since you and Anne started. I live in Canada and don’t do much cross border shopping but I happened to see the Skill Set Basic Knitting book in a small yarn shop in southern Ontario a few months ago. I bought it for fun, and to support you both in my own little way; it is excellent and is now a well thumbed title on my reference shelf. Going back to (well taught) basics is a great way to improve technique. Thanks for the early morning read….I look forward to it daily.
Nice to know there is a fellow Canadian who follows MDK. Lots of good ideas and wonderful projects. Just wish you had a Canadian outlet.
Ruth Ellen
Hi Ruth,
We have a Canadian distributor for the MDK Field Guides and Skill Set, so they are in local yarn stores in Canada and also online shops in Canada. And a large portion of what we offer is virtual, such as our virtual workshops, so the border doesn’t even exist for those!
Good to know. Which local yarn stores. We live in Toronto, Ontario.
Thanks.
Ruth Ellen
That’s so true! And Kay thanks for the reminder of the Youtube videos which I subscribed to when they came out, great resource!
Always a good reminder. I steer students to these videos all the time – so well done.
looking at the photos, I murmured ‘hoooly cats’ aloud in my cubicle just in time for my boss to check his stride, look over – smile and keep going. (oop) That’s some kind of glorious way to finish a blanket! I’m off to YouTube to bookmark Skill Set and I’m mentally going over my vast collection of scrappy yarn ends to see if I have enough to put together for a blanket. (spoiler alert – of course I do). Thank you, Ms. Kay for allowing us to follow your train of thought and also for sharing the resolution of a work in progress finish.
This is so me. I too, can think a problem to death before I make a decision. I can make myself crazy with this. Glad to know I am not along. And thanks for the You Tube channel. I will certainly subscribe.
GREAT!! Thank you!! I’ll be seaming a bunch of garter stitch blanket panels together… soon-ish… but I’ll watch your video first for a refresher!!
I really like that 10rowsaday seam for blankets!
I want easy spa cloth patterns
Very good